Fwd: Review: Heine & Nurse, eds., African Languages

[Dave Robertson]

Good evening; if you are also interested in African pidgin/creole languages, the following snip from a review may be rewarding:--Dave

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 12.528, Review: Heine & Nurse, eds., African Languages
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 03:52:37 -0000
From: The LINGUIST Network <linguist at linguistlist.org>

    From: Claire Bowern <bowern at fas.harvard.edu>
    Subject: Review: African Languages: An Introduction

    Heine, Bernd, and Derek Nurse, eds (2000) African Languages: An
    Introduction, Cambridge University Press, 396pp. ISBN 0
    521 66178 1 (Hardback)

        Claire Bowern, Harvard University

    This book is an introduction to the languages and language families spoken
    in Africa. The aim of the volume was both to introduce undergraduate
    linguistics students to African languages and to introduce students of
    African languages (particularly in Africa) to general linguistics. The
    editors and the twelve contributors of chapters are all well-respected
    Africanists, and they have done a good job in writing a book both for both
    linguists and non-linguists with an interest in 'African' languages.

...

Chapter 12 also contains a summary of the modern
    usage patterns of the colonial languages of Africa, such as French,
    Portugese, English and Afrikaans.

...  

    H Ekkehard Wolff's chapter concerns sociolinguistics in its broadest
    sense. The chapter contains information on patterns of multilingualism
    (including, for example, statistics from Nigeria is to the percentages of
    speakers proficient in two, three and four languages). Ekkehard Wolff
    discusses the major creoles and lingue franche of the continent, with a
    brief look at language death, shift and maintenance.

    In a survey volume such as this the reference list and the pointers to
    further reading are an important component of the usefulness of the book.
    Most chapters end with a section for "further reading". Perhaps this
    section could have been expanded a little; while the reference list is
    fine for undergraduate linguistics students, in fulfilling the editors'
    aims to make the book appeal to professional linguists with an interest in
    African languages, a more comprehensive reference list may have been in
    order. (On the other hand, there are other books that fulfil this function
    and in other places the authors have been careful to balance the need for
    detail with the need for brevity.)

    The authors should be commended for the clarity of their writing. This
    book is very easy to read and would make an excellent introductory
    textbook.

    In summary, a reader of this book will gain a basic idea of the major
    typological characteristics of the languages of Africa, their phonological
    systems, their clause types and inflection, a little of their history, and
    their patterns of use within society. The reader will also gain an idea of
    where to look for more detailed information on these topics, and they
    will learn something about linguistics and linguistic methodology. I would
    certainly recommend this book as an introductory English-language textbook
    for a course on African languages.

    [Claire Bowern - Harvard University. Claire is a graduate student in the
    Department of Linguistics at Harvard, working on historical linguistics.
    Her dissertation topic is a reconstruction of the Nyulnyulan languages of
    North-Western Australia. Her other interests include phonology and
    typology.]


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